


Fortune

by Legendaerie



Series: All the Rest is Rust and Stardust [3]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alpha Timeline, Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-25
Updated: 2012-05-25
Packaged: 2017-11-06 00:27:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/412706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Legendaerie/pseuds/Legendaerie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Later, he'd try to dismiss the whole incident as some coolkid version of a midlife crisis (at 22) or a drunken decision (no one could outdrink a Strider), but the real reason was a lot simpler.</p>
<p>Dangerous and stupid beyond compare, but simple.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>'hey rose, you ever think that they're not the enemy?'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fortune

**Author's Note:**

> Randomly generated prompt + style experiment for Sadstuck Saturday. It's okay, I don't know what's happening either.

  
Later, he'd try to dismiss the whole incident as some coolkid version of a midlife crisis (at 22) or a drunken decision (no one could outdrink a Strider), but the real reason was a lot simpler.  
  
Dangerous and stupid beyond compare, but simple.  
  
\---  
  
It wasn't a stand so much as a piece of cardboard, scrawled on in chalk that read:  
  


  


M1NDR34D1NGS  
ON3 BOONDOLL4R

  


hanging above an abandoned shop window with a giant hole through the glass.  Some penniless street urchin, likely an immigrant with a sob story and a knack for cons, was trying to earn a tax-free buck and as a cop he was somewhat required to run them out of business.

  


But Dave hung back and watched as the hooded figure folded her hands - tiny, bony, sharp nailed and suspicious - in her lap and waited for customers.  She was seated cross-legged besides the chipped and battered legs of a mannequin, whose torso and apparel had long ago been looted, and all he could see of her features were a pair of red glasses.

  


She didn't have to wait long.  Downtown Derse was swarming with lowlifes at this time of night - a carapace stumbled over to her window, nearly cutting himself on the jagged edges of the glass as he planted his palms on either side of her knees.

  


You can read my mind, huh?

  


He slurred, drawing a knife.

  


Well, I can smell a fucking Prospitian a mile off. But you know whats really cool?

  


The 'mindreader' hadn't moved a muscle, nor did she seem alarmed.

  


I can see the future, and I see your little... psychic mind bein' scooped out and yer skull being used as a punch bowl if you don't give me annnnother fuckin' drink.

  


The mind reader moved then, shoving the heel of her hand into the carapace's forehead as he vomited, sending him falling backwards and causing him to choke on his own bile.

  


Dave stepped in then, rolling the carapace onto his side with a sneaker, checking him over with a casual eyes hidden behind mirrored sunglasses.  Then he spoke to the hooded figure.

  


care to read my mind?

  


1 DONT DO CH4R1TY, KN1GHT.

  


She leaned forward then, her cheekbones catching the distant light of Skaia and her especially sharp myriad of teeth gleaming like tiny, vicious stars.

  


BUT 1 C4N T3LL YOUR3 NOT GO1NG TO 4RR3ST M3.

  


i've got every reason to.  you're a prospitian, and a troll too.  the higher ups would love you in their clutches and i could give you them on a fucking platter, trussed up and steaming with a juicy apple in your monster maw and a generous side of mixed vegetables.

  


She chuckled then, a grating sound as she shifted into a kneeling position, hands on her thighs as she leaned carefully over the broken glass.

  


TH3 TH1NGS W3 C4N 4ND C4NNOT DO 4R3 PO1NTL3SS POSS1B1L1T13S.  4LL TH4T M4TT3RS 4R3 TH3 4CT1ONS W3 T4K3.

  


The troll paused, sniffed in his direction, then her grin stretched ear to ear.

  


4ND YOUR3 NOT T4K1NG M3 4NYWH3R3 BUT TO D1NN3R.

  


His expression didn't change as he glanced from side to side.  No sight of anyone else important anywhere - certainly not his pain-in-the-ass partner Lalonde the Seer - so he extended a hand to her.

  


if that's what's in the stars and shit we shouldn't screw with the future.  time paradoxes and all those shenanigans.  but i better just take you to cafe strider.

  


WH4TS ON TH3 M3NU?

  


ramen and spoiled milk, prolly

  


H3H3H3

  


\---

  


When he woke up in the morning in nothing but socks and bitemarks, the first thing he noticed was his paradox-slime-sibling standing over him looking displeased.

  


Tut tut, Strider.  Such a childish act of passive aggressive rebellion, sleeping with the enemy.  I hope you're happy, because if your little discretion don't cost you your Knighthood they have at least cost you several hundred boondollars in material goods.

  


The second thing he noticed, and what Rose was referring to, was that his shared apartment had been robbed of everything valuable and portable - which, thanks to the Usurper Queen's stingy wages, wasn't much.

  


hey rose, ever think that they're not the enemy?

  


Rose's expression didn't change as she turned neatly on one heel, stepped over his discarded (and slightly torn) boxers and headed for the door.

  


you may be the seer, but i can read your mind.  you're gonna help me clean up this shit.

  


If you're referring to the shambles you have made of our mutual living quarters--

  


you know i'm not.

  


She paused, her hand on the doorknob as she closed her eyes and sighed.

  


Mind reading is a dangerous skill, brother.  One you had best not advertise.

  


A moment later she was gone.  Dave laced his fingers behind his head and sighed.

  


\---

  


1 DO S33 TH3 FUTUR3, D4V3!

  


sure you do.

  


NO, 1 DO.  1 S33 4 FUTUR3 WH3R3 W3 C4N 4LL WORK TOG3TH3R. 1 S33 4N 3ND TO TH1S 1NF3RN4L W4R 4ND 4N 3ND TO H4TR3D. 4N 3ND TO 4 WORLD RUL3D 1NJUSTLY BY 1NSUFF3R4BL3 ROY4LTY.

  


He rolled over onto his side, watching her sleepily from behind his shades.  The sweat had made her hair stiff, and it tangled when he ran his fingers through it.  She was staring blankly in his direction, a picture perfect beauty of grey skin, white sheets and scalded red eyes.

  


you see any means to all those ends?

  


M4YB3 1F 1 COULD G3T B4CK HOM3 4G41N 1 COULD.

  


maybe ain't the kind of word they base revolutions on.

  


BUT HOP3 1S.

  


\---

  


Dave didn't loose his Knighthood.  In fact, the only thing he heard regarding the incident was that a cargo ship thought to contain a Prospitian spy had tried to escape the previous morning and had been shot down.

  


If Rose gave him a pitying look when she came home, he was too busy avoiding her eyes to see.

  


\---

  


good luck out there.  with your espionage shit and your freaky suffering cult.

  


1 WOULD OFF3R YOU LUCK, D4VE, BUT 4S 4 TH4NKS FOR TH3 M34L, TH3 MON3Y 4ND TH3... COMP4NY, 1LL G1V3 YOU 4 PROPH3CY 1NST34D.

  


She leaned over, lifted his shades and looked him straight in the eyes.

  


TH3R3 W1LL B3 4 T1M3 FOR GR13F.  BUT B3FOR3 TH3N 1S TH3 T1M3 FOR 4CT1ON.

  


i'll keep that in mind.

  


YOU B3TT3R.  TH4NK YOU, COOLK1D.

  


\---

  


Six months later, the Heroes of Derse and Prospit were gathered in the Usurper Queen's throne room.  It had been a hard battle, but they had won. Blood in various colors spattered the walls, red and fuchsia and flecks of other shades as the last living occupant drew his final breaths.

  


His red eyes were fluttering closed as he drifted off for the last time.  Deliriously, he mumbled something into the heavy silence of the room.

  


you're welcome.


End file.
